SharePoint Online: Disable SharePoint Designer Workflow Creation
Requirement: Disable new SharePoint Designer workflows creation in SharePoint Online to promote Microsoft Power Automate adoption.
How to Disable SharePoint Designer Workflows Creation in SharePoint Online?
Although SharePoint 2010 workflow and SharePoint 2013 workflows are supported until 2026 in on-premises versions, SharePoint 2016 and SharePoint 2019, it’s a good idea to move from SharePoint Designer workflows to Power Automate as SharePoint Designer 2013 workflows are deprecated. Here is how to disable creating a new SharePoint designer workflow in SharePoint Online:
#Connect to SharePoint Online
Connect-SPOService -Url https://Crescent-admin.sharepoint.com
#Disable SharePoint 2010 Workflow
Set-SPOTenant -StopNew2010Workflows $true
#Disable SharePoint 2013 Workflows
Set-SPOTenant -StopNew2013Workflows $true
Make sure you have updated to the latest version of the SharePoint Online PowerShell module before running this script. Once the SharePoint 2013 Workflows are disabled, if a user tries to save or publish the workflow, he’ll get an error message saying:
“Workflow Error – Errors were found when compiling the workflow. The workflow files were not saved. The SharePoint admin has disabled the creation of new workflows. Existing workflows will continue to run.“
A similar error can be seen for SharePoint Designer 2010 workflows when a user tries to publish:
All Existing workflows will continue to function and be editable. You can verify the current status of SharePoint Designer workflows creation settings by:
Get-SPOTenant | Select StopNew2010Workflows, StopNew2013Workflows
Enable SharePoint Designer Workflows in SharePoint Online
Any new tenant provisioned have these workflows turned OFF by default and If you want to enable the SharePoint 2013 workflows, Open the SharePoint Online Management Shell and run this command:
Set-SPOTenant -StopNew2013Workflows $False
The Classic Admin Center settings page also has “Block SharePoint 2013 Workflows” to enable or disable SharePoint Designer 2013 workflows.
we are moving into SPO. But we have old workflows that are hard coded in SPD. At a minimum, i want to stop them from sending messages, but it would be great to be able to update the workflows before the transition. Is there aa way to update SPD workflows without SPD?
-Rich